The cases are being prepared by specialist lawyer Emma Jones of Leigh Day and Co. on grounds of negligence and poor care standards. Two have so far reached the High Court.

Ms Jones told the Romford Recorder she started receiving calls from families after the publication of a damning report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) into the Rom Valley Way hospital last year.

She added the cases before her suggested “serious failings in basic care”.

Among those making claims are the family of Ronald Roast, of Rainham.

Mr Roast was admitted to Queen’s in 2011 after suffering a series of heart attacks. He had advanced lung cancer and died of the illness in St Francis Hospice, Havering-atte-Bower, the day after he was discharged. He was 69.

Daughter Maria Lloyd, of Cricklade Avenue, Harold Hill, alleged her father hadn’t been fed properly while he was at Queen’s, and had gone 12 hours without a drip.

“It felt like the fact he was dying meant they didn’t really have much time for him,” said Maria, 47.

“He was just hauled about. They didn’t even check he was eating properly or going to the toilet.

“The fact his drip was off for so long meant there were no fluids or antibiotics going into him for 12 hours. He was left there, all uncovered, with all his bits showing, and he wasn’t fed properly while he was in there.

“All he had was a little tub of ice cream and a sandwich. It was just crazy.”

She said she was pursuing the case because she wanted to make people aware of how her father had been treated.

“People need to be aware of what’s going on,” she said. “Other people could be going in there and getting that sort of treatment.”

Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust’s chief exec Averil Dongworth apologised to all patients who had received poor care.

She said she recognised there was still work to do but added improvements were being made following the appointment of a new board.

“It is totally unacceptable that any patient should experience poor nursing care,” she said. “The trust was subject to a Care Quality Commission investigation in 2011, and we know people were not being given the high quality care that they deserved.

“We now have a new board in place, including a director of nursing who has already put in place a host of new ways of working.”

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